5Heads up5 fires, nearest 31 mi
Wildfire
Three Queens fire · 31 mi away · 9,575 acres · 33% contained · updated Sep 29, 2026
Wildfire
King fire · 34 mi away · 3,427 acres · 36% contained · updated Sep 29, 2026
Wildfire
West Fork fire · 37 mi away · 310 acres · 16% contained · updated Oct 3, 2026
Wildfire
Garda Falls fire · 38 mi away · 150 acres · 0% contained · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Ancient Lakes fire · 48 mi away · 15 acres · updated Oct 10, 2026
ReservableBooking 6 months out; today unlocks April 16. Season not published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
A night
$5From, per site
Sites
41 on recreation.gov
Drawn from the record · 4,200 ft · 32% tree cover · water within reach · Bortle 3 sky
4,200 ftElevation
374 ftWater · an unnamed stream
10.6 miS of Cle Elum, WA
32%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 299th darkest of 400 in WA

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service.

Tents and rigs

Sites
4
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

No reading yet, book on recreation.gov

recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
A night$5plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$18DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
Watch for a cancellation

Full? Watch it.

One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.

We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.

Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night$5
Camping Fee$5
These are next season’s rates, May 15, 2027 to Oct 1, 2027. The campground is between seasons now.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$13
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$18

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $5 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

Who keeps the booking fee

The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →

How we know this receipt · 5

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

4 sites

All 4 sites

Up to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

This Afternoon57°Mostly Sunny
Tonight43°Partly Cloudy then Slight Chance Rain Showers15% rain
Saturday47°Slight Chance Rain Showers then Partly Sunny15% rain
Saturday Night31°Partly Cloudy

NWS forecast for Cliffdell, WA

Typical weather

Typical October night 38°F, day 49°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical December night 24°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

80°32°20°

Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more

A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.

Measured at: STAMPEDE PASS, WA (USW00024237), 25 miles away and 241 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Manastash11,155 acres · 3 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Quartz8,550 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Kim Schrier, official portrait

Riders Camp is in Washington’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Kim Schrier (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service’s own recreation database flags it not open and publishes no reason and no date. That’s a flag, not a notice: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Cliffdell, WA, 8.2 mi NE (a census designated place). Straight line.